Abandoned at the altar, Kelly Grace Pickens finds herself left holding
not only the bouquet but also the exorbitant bill for an A-list wedding.
Homeless, a once promising singing career floundering, and her life
bearing an uncanny resemblance to one of her country music ballads, she
reluctantly accepts a last minute offer to appear on a reality TV show
akin to the bachelor. Pitted against silicon-enhanced supermodels in
four-inch heels, Kelly feels confident that she will be among the first
would-be fiancés to be excused. Only, when the mysterious bachelor from
New York City, Dillon Black, invites her to stay, Kelly finds herself
thrust into the vortex of a game she doesn’t have the first idea how to
play. Nursing her hopelessly broken heart while avoiding the foils of
her fellow contestants, Kelly is oblivious to Dillon’s affections as she
wades through hurt and betrayal to discover, in the end, that she has
landed firmly on both feet.

Author Bio

Julie
has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a minor in
English Literature from San Diego State University. In addition, she
earned a Masters in Social Work from the University of Alabama. She has
worked in teaching, childbirth education and family therapy. Besides
writing, she spends many hours working along side her husband at their
UPS Store franchise, but hopes to re-enter the Social Work field
someday.

She is the author of three women’s fiction novels, The Woman He Married (March 2011) and No Holly for Christmas (November 2011), published by Whiskey Creek Press. The third, Count Down to Love (July 2011), published by Bonneville Books.

Currently, she lives in Nashville, TN with her husband, two daughters and one very feisty fish.

GUEST POST: Goin’ Country with Count Down to Love

About a year
after moving to Nashville I awoke from a dream one morning with an idea for a
novel. The story would be about a washed up country star named Kelly Grace
Pickens who is ditched at the alter and ends up on a reality TV show akin to
the Bachelor. And to sweeten the plot, I’d have her writing a song that
develops as the story unfolds.

The only problem:
how can a person who doesn’t even listen to country music write about a country singer, much less come up with the lyrics to a country song?

She can’t, that’s
how.

You see I was raised
on rock-n-roll—Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, The Cure . . . a true music lover,
always believing that nothing spoke volumes to the soul like a well-written
song. However, for the sake of my story I would abandon my rock-n-roll roots
and turn my car stereo to one of Nashville’s many country stations. Okay so now
I was listening to songs about drinking, hooking up, eight-second rides and big
green tractors. And I might be reading too much into his song, but is Jason
Aldean singing about an actual piece of farm equipment or is his “tractor”
really a metaphor for something else? I’m just sayin’ is all.

Needless to say, it
wasn’t too long before I was reminded of my teenaged years and how grownups often
warned us kids not to listen to rock music because the lyrics would undoubtedly
lead us straight to hell. And wondering how country music had managed to fly
under the moral radar all those years?

But as I
continued my research into the genre of country music, I soon found that most
of the songs were about love, family, and forgiveness—downright heart trending
material.

Try as I might,
after a month or so of paying close attention to the themes and structure of
the songs, the fact still remained—I was just not a music writer. A simple
solution to my dilemma would have been to change Kelly’s character but I seem
to have an inexplicable aversion to taking the easy road. So in order to create
something resembling a country ballad, I turned to a couple of singer/song
writer friends, Brad Hull from the country band, Due West, and Aaron McBride.

A few weeks later
I was sitting in my living room across from two scruffy boot wearing,
guitar-toting men, and as long as I kept the kettle corn and jellybeans coming,
they were happy to just hang out bouncing tunes and lyrics off each other.
Watching them work, and the way the music flowed naturally from their minds to
their fingertips, was truly magical. It was kind of how narration and
dialogue sometimes flow effortlessly through me as if being sent from a special
place I have yet to discover—like my own little miracle. Only with these guys,
the process looked way cooler. And when they allowed me to write a line or two,
the whole experience got even better.

Of all the works I’ve had a hand in creating, I think
I’m most proud of the song, Who I Am.
This experience was likely my first, and last, delve into writing lyrics, but I
will carry the memory, and the knowledge that I helped create a real-live song,
with me for the rest of my life.

I've always been a sucker for a sweet romance, but I've never been a
big fan of supposed reality shows that claim to help a man or woman find
'love.' These shows seem anything but real to me. So I was a bit wary
going in about how much I would like this, but Kelly sounded like an
appealing character so I gave it a try, and I'm glad I did.

There are characters in this book who definitely made me roll my eyes
and wonder how anyone could be happy living such empty, image-focused
lives but there were other characters that I couldn't help but like. I
really liked Kelly and admired her efforts to find herself amid the
ruins of all her plans. Trevor, her fiance and a big jerk, who abandoned
her at the alter does unfortunately make an appearance later in the
book, in what turns out to be a very emotionally powerful scene. Dillon,
the 'bachelor' up for 'grabs' is a fascinating character. One almost
expects him to be a shallow, self-centered person, but he really isn't.
He is of course gorgeous, but that is not what stood out for me while
reading this book. Clearly he is looking for something beyond his
business and money but he can't seem to find it. Maybe that is why he
seems to see Kelly for who she really is. I think that is what I liked
best about their romance (although there are some great kissing scenes
as well), is that they helped each other find themselves and see that
there is much more to life than fame and money.

There were some great secondary characters as well. Lexi, a fellow
contestant, a bright red-headed gal from Texas, who seemed very
comfortable in her own skin. Sissy, Kelly's cousin, a producer on the
show, who encourages Kelly to look beyond Trevor and see the
possibilities (although there is one scene in which I got very mad at
her).

I appreciated that the story was clean, the most that goes on is some
intense kissing. There is some mention of belief in and prayer to God,
but it is not preachy in any way. I recommend this book to those who
enjoy a good romance with some depth to it, where the relationship
develops rather in spite of the so-called reality show. I'm not any more
a fan of reality shows than I was before, but I am a fan of Dillon and
Kelly. And I enjoyed the song that was written to go with this story, so
be sure to check it out.

Grand Prize Giveaway

As part of the tour, Julie is generously offering a grand prize giveaway of a hard copy of Count Down to Love,
a CD of the band Due West, and a copy of the single, “Who I Am”, which
Julie and Due West wrote and recorded specifically for the book. All you
have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post or any of the other
stops on the tour. (Visit the tour page for the full tour schedule.)
The more stops you comment on, the more entries you have into the
contest!

I also am not a fan of "reality TV" (or really any TV, for that matter) -- too many people willing to do just about anything for a few minutes of fame.I loved reading about the creation of the song that goes with the book -- such a neat story!

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About Me

I am currently working as a elementary school librarian which I love. I enjoy sharing books on my blogs of which I have two (Geo Librarian and LDS and Lovin' it). I also review for School Library Journal.